Raw human excrement potentially can be converted into a safe, reusable fuel and nutrient-rich fertilizer, researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev found. Scientists at BGU’s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research discovered that they can use a chemical process of hydrothermal carbonization to heat solid human waste in a “pressure cooker,” transforming it into hydrochar,…
Palestinian villagers living in desolate, off-grid areas in the West Bank have begun using Israeli-made biogas generators that supply free, clean energy by gobbling up organic waste. The portable, household “anaerobic digesters” made by Israeli start-up company HomeBioGas turn food leftovers and manure into methane for cooking and lighting. They can be taken along if…
The first utility-scale solar power field in East Africa, built on land belonging to a Jewish-sponsored youth village in Rwanda, was launched. The nearly $24 million project was financed and constructed by Gigawatt Global. Yosef Abramowitz, Gigawatt president, also is CEO of Energiya Global Capital, Gigawatt’s Israeli affiliate, which provided seed money and strategic assistance…
Israel faces the prospect of freeing itself from dependence on foreign oil in the near future, with potentially transformative impact on the country’s economic and political future, two experts agreed Sunday during the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington. But Yosef Abramowitz and Harold Vinegar, two entrepreneurs seeking to upend Israel’s energy future,…
Natural gas from the Tamar field off Israel’s Mediterranean shores began flowing on Saturday, the partners in the field said. Israel, once energy poor, is expected to become a gas exporter by the end of the decade, with the Tamar field holding enough reserves to meet the country’s gas needs for decades. The discovery in…
Every day this week, the Forward is publishing pieces from opinion leaders in different fields about their prescription for policy in President Obama’s second term. A sense of urgency over climate change has gripped the world’s scientists, as once-in-a-century superstorms, droughts, floods and shortages of food and water have become commonplace. Lately the alarm has…
Not so long ago, fracking was a technical term little known beyond the energy industry. Now it’s coming to Hollywood, as the fierce battle between environmentalists and oil firms is played out in several forthcoming films. Hydraulic fracturing, the controversial drilling technique also known as fracking, has lifted U.S. energy output dramatically, despite warnings from…
Amid the uproar over the Supreme Court’s late-June rulings on healthcare and immigration, you might have missed what could be the most important federal court ruling of the year: a unanimous June 26 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., protecting the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas regulations. The Bush-era EPA was…
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